My latest big project I’ve undertaken is ranking and writing about all 62 Best Picture nominees from the past decade. Where do the winners fall? What do I consider a real piece of trash? And what are my biggest hot takes?

You can find my rankings here on my blog. Feel free to let me know your thoughts and even provide your own rankings if you wish! I’d love to see them.

Film which deserved better placements: The Theory of Everything; The Revenant; The Imitation Game; Hacksaw Ridge; Manchester by the Sea; Philomena; Brooklyn (my personal winner for 2015); Argo; Hidden Figures; Silver Linings Playbook and Captain Phillips. These films all deserved to be the first half of the list.

“Fences” did way too good:It’s a horrible film and it should have been last. Some actors have awfully long and boring dialog in a studio. Not cool. And too hammy. I mean you just wanted to punch Denzel Washington in this. He is that bad. Viola Davis on the other hand, in a performance we have seen many times from her before, was really good, and I’m glad she is an Oscar-winner (and Emmy-winner) now. She deserves it.

Most of the films in the middle zone are ‘blah’: True Grit; Moneyball; American Hustle; Spotlight; Birdman; Nebraska; Selma – how did these mediocre films do better than Manchester by the Sea or Brooklyn? Just no.

Horrible mentions in Top 20: Hugo (the Harry Potter films are superior, but this was directed by Scorsese, so of course it was a nominee); Whiplash (never understood the love); Amour (you cannot really find more boring films on the market); Life of Pie (decent at best, overall, incredibly boring after the crash); Mad Max: Fury Road (Brainless action fun, no plot or meaning whatsoever); 12 Years a Slave (is it a good film or just politically important?).

I simply hate “Tree of Life”: I think it’s simply in my bottom five. It’s trying to be artistic and meaningful, but it’s dull and annoying. You can praise the cinematography here, but you don’t know much about the characters, the situation or the plot. And the damn length was just killing me. You don’t go to the cinema to see nice clouds and effects in an absolutely random editing, without an actual story or meaning.